Poker is a card game where the players compete against each other to win a pot of money. It is played in hundreds of variations, but a basic understanding of the rules is necessary to play it effectively.
The most important rule of poker is to bet only when you have a strong hand and do not fold your weaker hands. This will force other weaker players to fold and help you increase the value of your pot.
A complete hand is dealt to each player, face down. After betting, players may discard up to three cards and take new ones from the top of the deck.
Depending on the variant of poker being played, each player has the choice to call (put into the pot the same number of chips as the last player), raise (put more than enough chips into the pot to call), or drop (“fold”) and lose all of the chips in the pot.
In most games, the highest possible hand is a royal flush, which contains 10 of a kind in any suit. The next best hand is a straight flush, which is 5 consecutive cards of the same suit.
The lowest hand is a pair of aces. In some games, the ace may be treated as the lowest card and thereby make 6-4-3-2-A the lowest hand. In high low split games, the highest and lowest hands divide the pot between them.